Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Bloomberg that Donald Trump's policies are pushing Kyiv toward capitulation, infohub.kz reports.
According to the Ukrainian leader, the period before the U.S. midterm elections on November 3 has become dangerous for Kyiv. "I think right now it's agony, but after the elections life will go on and, I believe, it will become calmer," he said.
Zelensky claims that U.S. authorities deliberately slowed Starshield for Ukraine and are delaying deliveries of interceptor missiles for Patriot air-defense systems. "My last proposal was: we won't strike diesel fuel production in Russia, you will give us Patriot missiles to protect our facilities. But they just want us to stop attacking diesel fuel production. And if we strike it, they will cut us off from something else," he said.
Zelensky also said Trump's policies resemble attempts to push Ukraine to surrender. "I believe steps have been taken to persuade Ukraine to capitulate. I'm not saying that this is the goal our partners are pursuing. I don't want to think that our American partners believe the war can be ended sooner at Ukraine's expense. But it looks that way," the politician said in the interview.
Recall that last week Trump announced an agreement with Putin on supplies of Russian diesel fuel. He said that thanks to this, as well as control of the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices would fall in the United States and around the world. It also became known that Donald Trump imposed new large-scale sanctions against Russia and tariffs against countries that buy oil and gas from it — and then immediately canceled them. Later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained why the United States struck a diesel deal with Russia: he is confident that the fuel would have reached the global market regardless.